REINVENTION

The instinct is to go somewhere beautiful and full of couples. The instinct is wrong, and there is a reasonably clear-eyed argument for why.

Every beginner's guide tells you to avoid it. The tradition associates Saturn with restriction, effort and competence — and a few people go there deliberately for exactly that.

The house was chosen by two people, at least one of whom no longer lives in it. That is a real reason to reconsider where you are — and a poor reason to be in a hurry about it.

Almost nobody chose where they live. They chose a job, and the postcode came attached. Retirement is the first time in decades that the constraint is gone, and the freedom is more disorienting than people expect.

Everything about the house was decided by people who no longer live in it. The catchment area, the spare rooms, the distance to the station. The reasons left; the mortgage stayed.